Magic in the Mill Brook along Thoreau’s Trail

Riverfest on 6/122005 included: “Mill Brook Explorations. Take a guided natural history tour with wildlife tracker Lydia Rogers along portions of the Thoreau Amble, a new trail winding through fields and woods along the Mill Brook that were once traversed by Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The walk is limited to 10 people.”

I saw through new eyes wonders of nature I had walked through many times with my wife, Ellen and our seven children for the last 30 years. But today we learned secrets of where to look and what to look for in nature.

Today as we walked and were coached by Lydia Rogers she helped us find the banks an otter pool in the Mill Brook where we looked at fish scales in the otter scat.

Also saw remnants of an owl’s meal plus owl scat containing fur and the regurgitated jaws and teeth from the owl’s meal. All at the base of the largest diameter tree I have ever seen in the Mill Brook, probably home to the owl.

Lydia taught us how coyote tracks are all in a line because it is a “working animal”, I have often seen them in the snow on my winter walks, sometimes mixed with red drops of blood from winter mice.

We watched fish (small mouth bass?) near the Fairyland Pond dam that were guarding their eggs in shallow pools, Lydia says the male fish often assume that role after his mate has deposited the eggs in a sandy dish they create with their tails.

I recall seeing fish doing exactly that last year in Fairyland Pond at the same location in the northeast corner of the pond.